rather secluding himself from ing at Broughton, first under The few particulars of his life, which either my enquiries or the kindness of his friends have supplied, are as follows: So growing was his reputation Upon further enquiry, I found that, notwithstanding the ad- he had been brought to a thovance of his terms and the en-rough sense of the importance creased number of his pupils, of eternal things, and an entire there were generally applica- devotedness of himself to God tions, even down to the period of through Jesus Christ, by means his lamented death, to fill up va- of a sermon of mine from Matt. cancies as they occurred by the xvi. 26, delivered, at Wallop, removal of earlier pupils. on Lord's day afternoon, June 29th, 1794, nearly seventeen months previous to my having any knowledge of it. In February, 1796, he was baptized and received a member of the church at Broughton; and, in the month of April following, came to reside with me at Broughton, beginning a course of study with a view to the ministry. In the subsequent months of July and August, he accompanied Brother Saffery and myself in our first excursion into Cornwall; and, if I mistake not, preached, for the first time, in the Mr. Webb was born at Andover, in Hampshire, in 1779, whence his family removed when he was about three years old. His father then settled at Quarley, in the same county; where he supported a respectable character as a farmer. The subject of this memoir was his second son. The family had been in the habit of occasional attendance on divine worship, at the Baptist Meet-Baptist Meeting at Launceston. ร Soon after his return, he was regularly called out to the ministry; and, during the remainder of his residence at my house, preached frequently in the neighbourhood. The whole of his time he distinguished himself for piety, zeal, and amiableness of deportment. He made a very rapid progress in learning, so that he entered the academy at Bristol, with some very considerable advantages. Thither he went in August, 1797." An unfinished letter from Mr. Webb to Dr. Marsham, of Serampore, enables me to continue, with sufficient minuteness of detail, the history of his life, from the period of his leaving Broughton till that of his set tlement at Birmingham, from which I will make a pretty full extract, as it refers to the part of his life most strongly marked with variety of incident." It was in the summer of 1797, that I left Broughton, and entered Bristol Academy, where I became acquainted with you. My first vacation I spent at Broughton; my second, at Oxford, when you sailed; and my third, at Tiverton. In February and March, 1801, I supplied at Cannon Street, Birmingham. On leaving the Academy that summer, I went, by invitation, again to Tiverton; and, before the close of the year, was ordained there, and married. My dear wife's name was Chritiana Jones, daughter of Mr. Jones, Wilder Street, Bristol, belonging to Broadmead; and to her kind care and unwearied attentention, I have been indebted, under God, for the preservation of my life in a thousand subse quent instances. It pleased God to smile upon my labours at Tiverton. When I went, the church was very much decayed, and few came to its solemn feasts. At their weekly evening meetings they had often not more than six or eight, and sometimes still fewer. "But, in the progress of the next year, several were baptized; two or three villages had weekly lectures, and our congregation was so far increased as to render the erection of side galleries eligible; which were put up and paid for that autumn, and we had the pleasure of seeing thenceforward a pretty regular congregation of from four hundred to five hundred people, many of whom were led to declare in Zion what the Lord had done for their souls, and the prospect of usefulness was extensive and encouraging; when it pleased the Most High, by one of those dispensations, of which he giveth no account to mortals, suddenly and totally to lay me aside from the ministry! Part of May and June, 1804, I was requested to visit the church at Plymouth,destitute in consequence of Mr.Winterbotham's removal to Horsley. After the close of the service of the last sabbath of my stay there, I was a good deal disturbed by a slight spitting of blood, but it soon went off, and I little suspected the cause or the danger. I returned home, and felt no more till the end of June, when the rupture of another artery in the lungs, and a more copious discharge, began such an era of agonizing affliction to myself and my dear partner, as my pen is unable to describe, and me mory to detail. On July 14th, 1804, after a three years' residence at Tiverton, we finally left it for Bristol. The last week of that month witnessed a very violent and hopeless relapse, to a degree hardly ever surpassed, even when the patient eventually died: but he who knoweth our frame mercifully remembered we were dust, and directed us to the advice of the late Dr. Beddoes, at a period when every hope was extinct. In a state of infantine debility, I was removed to Clifton, and there, by his recommendation of the digitalis purpurea, the unremitting assiduities of my dear wife, and the blessing of our heavenly Father upon their joint exertions, I began imperceptibly to amend. So far as medicine was concerned, the foxglove was the great article in checking that excess of arterial action that for so many wearisome nights and months threatened the springs of life. The progress of convalescence was so slow, that when, at Dr. Beddoes' recommendation, I left Clifton at the latter end of October, for my father's house in Hampshire; I was unable to walk across the room without help, and, for a long time afterwards, did not venture out of doors. "In the beginning of April, 1805, still at my father's, though unable to walk any distance, I was yet capable of taking a little exercise on horseback, and appeared visibly gaining ground, when the imprudence of the surgeon, in taking blood from the arm, brought on a relapse, and retarded, for many tedious months, the progress of convalescence. In all this season of retirement and sorrow, I had many solemn reflections. I trust I had some ground of hope, that as to my past ministry I had so declared the counsel of God, as to stand free from the blood of all men; and those great doctrines of the Gospel that were my chief topic then, were my only consolation now; nor had I ever before SO clear an impression of their truth and their infinite value. And I may truly say, for my dear wife and myself, Unless the Lord had been our support we had perished in our afflictions.' But, blessed be his name, hitherto he hath helped us.' I "In the latter end of the autumn, 1805, I left Hamp shire and came to Bristol, and, soon after, proceeded to Birmingham on a visit of friendship, where, in the course of the year 1806, my health having something amended, a few friends were desirous we should stay and engage in the education of youth. To this proposal we acceded, and took four pupils at the beginning of 1807; these soon increased to eight; and, by the end of the year, we proposed limiting our number to twelve, at which it still continues. The very delicate and enfeebled state of my health rendered it necessary for me to take an assistant, in whom I have been very comfortable; and, though my constitution seems now settled down into a state of permanent infirmity, with occasional variations of worse and better, that renders me incapable of any extra effort, of going much into society, of less serviceable to support a buoyancy of spirits under the accumulating load of disease. any inclemency of the weather, and requiring unintermitted care, imposing on my dear wife the task of constant nursing, and It was, I believe, in the authe anxiety of constant fear; yet tumn of 1811, that Mr. Webb we have abundant reason to be was first introduced to this gen-. thankful to that amazing mercy tleman's society. He had conby which we have been sup- sulted him on professional subported to the present hour! My jects, which led to the placing complaint is supposed, by some of his eldest son under Mr. medical men of skill, to ori- Webb's care. The intimacy ginate in a debility of the mus-encreased, and continued to furcular action of the heart, and nish Mr. Webb with one of the not to proceed immediately most interesting sources of pleafrom an affection of the lungs; sure from human society, which but, in either case, all hope of he enjoyed during the last few the resumption of the ministry years of his life. is expired. Who shall attempt to say to the Judge of all the earth, 'What doest thou?' Rather let me say, though my hopes are crumbled into dust, Not my will, but thine be done!"" It was in the beginning of September, 1814, that the hæmoptissis took place, which, in six weeks, sunk him into the shades of death. His complaint, from the first, was consumption, which had its origin in the rup too great exertion; and which was retarded, for many years, chiefly by his prudence, and the calmness of his temper. We now come to the closing scenes of the life of my inesti-ture of a blood-vessel, through mable friend. There is but one circumstance that occurred, subsequent to the date of the above letter, of sufficient importance to be introduced into this brief This is the account of Dr. Memoir. This was the inti- Johnstone, to which I must, in macy formed with his physician, justice, add the skill of his Dr. Edward Johnstone, a gen-medical attendants, and the untleman uniting great urbanity of remitting attentions of an affecmanners with extensive classical tionate wife. knowledge. His professional attentions were exemplary and unremitted. His prompt attendance, the tenderness of his sympathy, and kind watchfulness to the last moment, cannot be erased from the grateful remembrance of the widow of my friend. But, while the medical skill of this gentleman greatly contributed to hold in check the progress of disease, the friendship of a person of literary taste, congenial with his own, was no Mrs. W. in a letter to me, thus describes the commencement of his final attack. "The last evening that we were blessed with his dear society, in the parlour, was peculiarly pleasant; that delightful serenity of mind, and that natural cheerfulness which so constantly distinguished him, were particularly noticed by us all: little did I then know what the next rising sun would witness. We went to bed as usual, and my dear, Joseph slept till two in the morning, when he awoke and coughed, and it was blood. For nearly a fortnight, during the expectoration of blood, he was delirious. In the first interval of reason, he desired me to bring his MSS. which I arranged according to his direction. He took up his Saxon grammar, and said it had afforded him many hours of pleasure, though he was not permitted to finish it. When speaking of the probability of his not continuing long, I asked him where I should look for materials for some account of him. With that modesty which always characterized him, he replied: Remember, I have been an obscure individual for many years; there is nothing to say of me.' But, when I urged the distress it would occasion me, for a life so valuable to sink into the grave unnoticed, he mentioned some papers, and desired me to send them to you." Mr. Webb's extreme debility towards the last, forbade conversation, not only from himself, but by others who were with him. The usual method of intercourse was by a pencil, on a card. His death was precisely that which might be expected, from such a life, closing in these circumstances. him after the violent attack, he put out his hand, and, with a smile, which indicated the affection and the calmness of his mind, said, It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him good.' His desires were earnest and frequent, that those around him, and his friends, should make his case the subject of their prayers. On being asked what he wished they should pray for, he replied, 'That God may be glorified, whether it be by life or by death.' Soon after the fatal illness had commenced, on being asked if he experienced divine consolation, he said, Yes, yes, I know in whom I have believed,' &c. but added, 'I cannot talk.' Another time, on being asked whether he felt the presence of Christ precious in his afflictions, he replied, O yes, very precious.' In the course of his illness he frequently said, 'It is trying, but the Lord's time will be best." Not a murmur ever passed his lips: all was submission. Once, when he thought himself better, he said, "The Lord has been good to me: as my day has been, so my strength has been. If he had not helped me, I had perished in my affliction, and added with fervour, Glory to his name.' The state of his feelings, in the immediate conflict with death, may be conceived from the fol The state of his feelings, during the attack that terminated his life, is thus described in a let-lowing account of his last interter to me from his assistant, Mr. view with a highly esteemed Phipps: "The first time I saw friend;* and which occurred but * Miss S. Thomas, the daughter of the Rev. Mr. Timothy Thomas, of Islington, a young lady whose friendship was greatly prized by Mr. Webb. The extract is made from a letter addressed to her sister, soon after the decease of her friend. |